NUJ signs letter to Meta objecting to use of unlicensed authors' work to train AI
Protests outside Meta's London HQ over 'unlawfully scraped' content
The NUJ has co-signed a letter to Meta chair and CEO Mark Zuckerberg objecting to his company’s use of unlicensed works to train its AI.
Organised by the Society of Authors and delivered to the technology company’s London HQ during a protest led by the SoA, the letter calls for details of which authors’ works have been used, the removal of “unlawfully scraped” works, for Meta to not use copyrighted content again without consent and for damaged to be paid.
The other signatories are the Writers’ Guild of Great Britain, the Association of Authors’ Agents, Creators’ Rights Alliance, the Association of Illustrators and the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS).
The protests and letter were sparked by the revelation in The Atlantic on 20 March that evidence revealed in legal proceedings against Meta in the US contains allegations that high level decisions were made at the company to use pirated book collection Library Genesis (Lib Gen) to train its AI, called Llama 3.
Lib Gen contains over 7.5million books and 81million research papers.
The NUJ strongly objects to Meta’s use of unlicensed works to train AI and the union's general secretary Laura Davison has co-signed the letter to Meta, which says:
“Given the allegations contained in the Atlantic article, Meta is required irrevocably to undertake in writing within twenty-one days:
1. To provide a comprehensive schedule of the works of UK authors (including derivative works such as translations) which Meta has scraped from the Lib Gen dataset and which have been used to develop Llama 3. The schedule must include full particulars of each work including but not limited to the title and the name of the author.
2. Immediately to permanently remove from Llama 3 all the works of UK authors which have been unlawfully scraped in the course of its development.
3. Not in the future to use, exploit or otherwise deal in any work by a UK author or any substantial part of any work, nor to cause or permit any other person to do any such act, for the purpose of training an AI model without first obtaining consent.
4. Not otherwise to infringe copyright in all, or any substantial part, of the work of a UK author.
5. To provide a witness statement within a further 21 days, endorsed with a statement of truth, from a properly authorised officer of Meta, confirming that Meta has complied fully and promptly with the obligations imposed by paragraph 1 and 2 above and that the information supplied under paragraph 1 is accurate and comprehensive.
6. To pay such damages or profits relating to the infringement of the copyright of UK authors as may be agreed or, in default of agreement, determined by the court.
Once the undertakings have been provided, please confirm that you will then meet with representatives of the undersigned bodies in order to seek to agree the compensation to be paid to UK authors.”
The SoA has also written to culture secretary Lisa Nandy and creative industries minister Chris Bryant “demanding that Meta is held to account by the UK government” and organised a petition people can sign to show their support.